Consumer Purchasing Trends You Should Know To Sell More: French Market

The convenience and the sheer bliss of shopping online and having your goodies delivered to your doorstep is something else. French consumers are not afraid to shop from foreign countries and test their products.

71% of the French consumers prefer to shop online.
39% of them have shopped from international e-commerce websites in the past 12 months.

Where Do They Shop?

Top Destinations:

While shopping online, the French consumers trust the certain country’s e-commerce website. These countries are:

USA – 15% French consumers
Germany – 14% French consumer
United Kingdom – 17% French consumer

What Do They Shop?

Maybe because they like the quality or because they love the price, for whatever reason, the average French consumer buys the following from international e-commerce websites:

Entertainment Education – 31%
Apparel, Accessories, footwear and Clothing – 46%
Consumer Electronics – 24%
Travel and Transport – 24%

How Do They Find You?

48% of the French consumers go to the international websites they have used in the past.
40% of them are taken to foreign websites when they are searching for their favorite products on any search engine.
40% of the consumers go to those international e-retail websites that they know of or know the addresses.

Cross-Border E-Commerce Revitalized

25% of the French consumers shopped internationally via their cell phones.
8% of them have made payments via their cell phones.

What Urges Them To Shop Online Internationally?

46% of the consumers’ patron from those international websites that offer them a safe way to make payments.
41% of French consumers shop internationally online because of free shipping.
36% of them prefer it because of free return offer.
36% of them shop internationally online because the websites are available in French language.

What Turns Them Off?

37% of the French consumers don’t shop internationally because of the high shipping costs.
35% of them are concerned about counterfeit goods.
39% are concerned about not getting sufficient help.
35% of the French consumers are concerned about the website security.

Why Do They Abandon Shopping Carts?

26% of them abandoned their carts because the shipping time was too long.
42% of them did it because the shipping and posting charges was too high.
28% of them abandoned their carts because of the security of the website.

Why Do They Return Your Products?

Almost 13% of the French consumers have returned their international purchases.
6% of them do that because the product they receive is not what was described to them online.
3% of them no longer had the need or desire to use that product.
4% of them returned the products because they always intended to return some of them.

Freight Forwarding – A Major Issue

19% of the consumers prefer to use a forwarding address.

13% of them have used a freight company.
29% of the French consumers use a freight forwarding company because the website of their choice did not ship to their country.
42% chose a shipping company because it was cheaper.
27% wanted to combine multiple purchases from different shops.

Currency Conversion

59% actually don’t shop online because they can’t make payments in their own currency.

Lastly, many of the French consumers don’t shop online because of the language barriers. They may like the products on your website, if they cannot find the information they need on your website, chances are they will not buy from you, ever. You can control this issue and even eliminate it by using Retail French translation services. This is perhaps the most cost effective way to globalize your website and get more sales.